Daily News Archive

Daily News Subscription

Training At Caulfield To End Within 5 Years

Friday, 25th July 2008

Melbourne Racing Club chairman Peter Young yesterday confirmed plans are "well advanced" to permanently shift daily trackwork from the valuable inner-city site, declaring that "in the medium term, and that is 5 years outwards, training at Caulfield is going to be uneconomical". Young told Radio Sport 927: "There has been & there is a remarkable opportunity for race clubs, particularly those which are strong in their assets, have land & the will & the commitment in the people to develop. We have a master-plan development for Caulfield. We own a lot of surrounding free-hold land, car parks, stables & the like. We have submitted to Council, and now government, plans for development which could be on a scale of $750 million." Young revealed the plan (along lines similar to recently announced proposals to maximise potential returns from valuable inner-city acreage at Royal Randwick in Sydney) encompassed both residential & commercial developments & noted: "Clubs must have independent revenue streams. That will be more & more important to race clubs in the years to come. Training at Caulfield has always been an issue on the table. What it means effectively at the moment is that the Club has given an indication to Council, on the basis of support for all of our development, that in the medium term & when Racing Victoria have their plans formulated & up-and-running, there will likely be, certainly from the medium term on, no training at Caulfield. But I emphasise that is dependent on Racing Victoria & the progress they make in the development of these training centres that we have been promised (in other Victorian locations), that have been spoken about, year after year."